John Cregan (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 143: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the way in which a person of Australian origin, who has stamp 1 status on an immigration bureau card, a valid work permit up to January 2006 and who has been resident in Dublin since 2001 can change their residency status in order to be in a position to purchase a house; the meaning of stamp status; and the criteria required to be fulfilled to allow a person of Australian origin to apply for permanent residency status. [9778/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The information supplied is insufficient to determine what residency status the person in question requires to be in a position to purchase a house. However, it is open to non-EEA nationals who have been legally resident in the State for five years, on the basis of work permit conditions, to apply to the immigration division of my Department for a five year residency extension. In that context they may also apply to be exempt from work permit requirements. A non-national who has resided legally in the State for eight years may apply for long-term residency in the State without condition as to time. Periods of residence in the State for the purpose of study or for the examination of an asylum claim will not count for this purpose.

It is also open to the person in question to make an application for a certificate of naturalisation if he or she has a period of one year's continuous residence in the State immediately before the date of application and, during the eight years immediately preceding that period, has had a total residence in the State amounting to four years.

Permission to remain in the State is given on my behalf in the form of a stamp, endorsement, placed in the non-EEA national's passport. This is a statement of the conditions on which the non-EEA national is permitted to remain in the State and the duration of that permission.